Don't Tell Me

 Having a stranger beside me yapping into the air with piece of plastic in its ears is nothing new to me any more. Used to be they were speaking to you. Not so now. These individuals who have things stuck into their ear canals are actually half listeners. Whatever they are listening to, whether it be voices,  music, something called a "podcast", it's evidently something they are only half interested in. They go for a hike or a run or pedal a bike going nowhere with a plastic gizmo stuck into their heads or zoning an audio book and they call it reading. That's the one that most offends me. Why? If it is a book, then it can't be much of a piece of art if it takes only half of one's attention to sense. I am of the old-fashioned opinion that what we read or listen to, should take in all of our attention. Art is "feeling" and that means it needs to appeal to every aspect of sense. If you're sweating it out lifting weights or driving or shopping for a bargain, your senses are busy elsewhere, not on what's stuck in your ear.  And news podcasts bother me the most. I do not have the will nor the patience, to listen to someone, no matter how British their lovely accent be, ranting  a novel or a news casts for  me. Let. Me. Read. The reading eye is much faster than the ear. No matter how wonderful a journalist is, thank you very much, I want to read the words  mainly because I can skip over the doo doo and get on with the facts and then, decide what my  opinions are. I don't need someone intercedeing and calling it helpful. Back off tellers, I can read and think for myself. I want to savour words sometimes, and maybe reread a lovely passage in a book or on kindle.  Often I just like looking at the word or maybe googling it, or appreciating the artist's creation of words, ones that no one will find in a dictionary. Many journalists, also, have voices that should never, never be doing podcasts. Ugh. They are great at what they set out to do: collecting information to pass it on without colouring it. That's called journalism. And I am also tired of journalists who think they are expert detectives and judges. They are not trained for it. Sorry but my ears have told me all this, and I am listening.